Secret plan shows the IRS wants to ‘get out of the business of talking with taxpayers,’ advocate says (The Washington Post)

Doing business with the Internal Revenue Service of the future will feel a lot like doing business with an online retailer or your bank. You’ll file your taxes online and be notified through a secure email account that the IRS got them. Questions, payments — even audits — will be communicated to you electronically. No more letters in the mail.

The IRS says its jump to widespread automation sometime in the next five years will be a necessary act of catching up to the modern world. But a new report issued Wednesday by the national advocate for taxpayers alleges that the IRS of the future will more or less wipe out taxpayers’ interaction with a human being, either on the phone or in person.

“Based on our internal discussions with IRS officials, [we have] been left with the distinct impression that the IRS’s ultimate goal is ‘to get out of the business of talking with taxpayers,'” National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson wrote in her annual report to Congress.